Santorini, booked properly.
Which catamaran day actually stops at the hot springs. Where the sunset is worth the crowd and where it is not. What a flying-dress shoot really costs. Every tour on the island, reviewed and ranked.
Nearly every Santorini day ends up on a boat. Pick which one.
Every day out on the water →The caldera only makes sense from the water: the cliff is 300 metres of ash and lava you cannot read from the rim. Three very different days leave the same quays — a full catamaran day, a short volcano-and-hot-springs run, and an evening sail timed to the sunset.
Catamaran, BBQ on deck, swim stops
Out past the Red Beach and White Beach, an anchor drop for swimming, lunch grilled on the stern, and the cliff from below for the whole afternoon.
- 1Catamaran Tour with BBQ Dinner, Drinks, and Musicfrom $93
- 2Premium Small-Group Catamaran Cruise with BBQ, Open Bar, Transferfrom $151.16
Nea Kameni crater and the hot springs
A wooden caique to the black cone in the middle of the bay, up the crater path in the heat, then a swim into the rust-coloured warm water off Palea Kameni.
- 1Volcanic Islands Cruise with Hot Springs Visitfrom $29
- 2Santorini Caldera Cruise Tour (Volcano, Hot Springs, Thirassia)from $42.24
Sailing under the cliff as the light goes
The same caldera in the last two hours of light, with the sun dropping behind Thirassia rather than behind three thousand people in Oia.
- 1Sunset Sailing Catamaran Cruise in Santorini with BBQ and Drinksfrom $95.53
- 2Sunset Cruise with Swim Stops, Dinner, and Drinksfrom $132
The days Santorini is booked for.
The catamaran afternoon, the wineries on the flat side of the island, the bus that ends in Oia, the red dress on a blue dome. Six lists that cover most of what people fly here to do.
What travellers actually book in Santorini.
Every review →Ranked by how many people have been and come back to say so. The order is theirs, not ours — and it is a fair map of what the island does best.
1
Volcanic Islands Cruise with Hot Springs Visit
Santorini caldera cruise with volcano hike, hot springs swim, Thirassia break, and optional Oia sunset, from $29 per person.
From · $29
Read our review →
2
Catamaran Tour with BBQ Dinner, Drinks, and Music
from $93
3
Premium Small-Group Catamaran Cruise with BBQ, Open Bar, Transfer
from $151.16
4
Santorini Classic Catamaran Cruise with BBQ, Drinks and Transfers
from $114.88
5
Luxury Catamaran Day Trip with Meal and Open Bar
from $129
6
Half-Day Exclusive Catamaran Cruise in Santorini with Meal and Open Bar
from $133.02
7
Santorini Gold Catamaran Cruise with Snorkel, BBQ & Open Bar
from $117
8
Top Sights Day Trip, Wine Tasting, & Oia Sunset
from $61
The rim, in the order most people walk it.
Imerovigli
ThirassiaThe other Santorini is flat, dusty and full of wine.
Behind the caldera rim the island drops away into ash fields where vines are woven into low baskets to hide from the wind. Assyrtiko, vinsanto, nychteri — a tasting afternoon in Megalochori or Pyrgos costs less than an hour on a boat and is the one thing here nobody photographs.
Everyone on the island faces the same way at 8pm.
Sunset in Santorini is an event with a timetable, and Oia castle is where four thousand people go to watch it. These are the alternatives that put the same light in front of you with room to stand — from a deck, from Imerovigli, or from the rim path above Ammoudi.
Santorini is expensive. Here is where the money goes.
Every priced tour on the site, sorted by what it actually costs per person. The island runs dearer than the rest of Greece and the boats are the reason.
Volcano runs, entry tickets, tastings, hikes and the bus tours that end at the Oia sunset.
The standard shared catamaran day with food and drinks aboard, and most photo sessions.
Private boats, small-group charters, helicopters and photographers booked to yourself.
A cruise call gives you Santorini for six hours, and the tender queue takes one.
Ships anchor in the caldera and tender you into the Old Port under Fira — there is no berth, so everything runs on the tender and the way back up. The tours built for cruise passengers work backwards from all-aboard, keep a hard margin, and skip the cable-car queue on the return.
- 1Santorini Volcano and Hot Springs Cruise Tour from Fira Old Portfrom $36.04
- 2The Best Santorini Small-Group Shore Excursion for Cruise Shipsfrom $83.48
- 3Skip Sky Tram !!! Hassle-Free 5 Hour Tour for Cruise Passengersfrom $67.58
Three things you can only do on this island.
Whitewash and blue domes exist all over the Cyclades. A Bronze-Age town under a volcanic ash blanket, a twelve-metre dress on the caldera rim, and a footpath along the top of a drowned crater do not.
The Flying Dress
A studio in Oia hands you a dress with a twelve-metre train, a photographer walks you to a wall above the caldera and an assistant throws the fabric into the wind on a count of three. It started here with one local photographer and is now the single most-booked kind of photo session on the island. Book the first slot after sunrise — by ten the good walls have queues, and by afternoon the wind off the caldera is strong enough to take the dress and you with it.
- 1Santorini 2h Private Flying Dress Photoshoot with Transportation★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 357 reviews
- 2Exclusive Santorini Flying Dress Photoshoot with Pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 336 reviews
- 3Flying Dress Photoshoot with Edited Photos★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 160 reviews
The Bronze-Age Town
Akrotiri is a whole Minoan town — two-storey houses, drains, staircases, pots still standing where they were left — sealed under ash by the eruption that blew the middle out of the island. There are no bodies and no jewellery: these people read the warning and left. It sits under a modern roof, so it is the one Santorini sight that is better in a heatwave, and it is a twenty-minute drive from the village of the same name.
- 1Akrotiri Entry Ticket and Audio Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 3.9 · 348 reviews
- 2Akrotiri Ticket with Optional Self-Guided Audios★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 298 reviews
- 3Archaeological Bus Tour To Akrotiri Excavations & Red Beach★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 280 reviews
The Caldera Path
Ten kilometres of rim path from Fira to Oia, past Imerovigli and Skaros rock, with a 300-metre drop on your left the whole way. It takes four to five hours in the loose sections and there is no shade at all — which is why the guided walks leave at seven in the morning or at five in the afternoon, and why the sunset finish is the one worth paying for.
- 1Caldera Trail Guided Hike and Sunset Viewing★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 110 reviews
- 24hr Small Group Caldera Hike from Fira to Oia★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 75 reviews
- 3Santorini’s Famous Fira to Oia Hike: A Private tour Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 49 reviews
Santorini days are cancelled by wind, not rain.
The meltemi is a dry north wind that runs down the Aegean through July and August, and when it gets up the small boats and the sailing catamarans stay tied to the quay. It almost never rains here in summer — the day is not lost, it just moves inland, where the wind is only an inconvenience.
The Santorini bookings that will not be there in July.
Most of the island can be arranged from your hotel the evening before. These cannot: the boats run one or two departures a day, the photographers work a single golden hour, and both fill weeks out from June to September.
- 01Santorini Sunset Luxury Sailing Catamaran Cruise with BBQ, drinks, transferOne sunset departure a boat, one boat a day. High summer goes weeks ahead.
- 02Santorini 2h Private Flying Dress Photoshoot with TransportationShot in the hour after sunrise, one couple at a time, and the dresses are hired by size.
- 03Santorini 360: Helicopter Ride, Must-See Sights & Wine TastingFour or five seats an aircraft and a handful of flights a day off the airport apron.
- 04Caldera Trail Guided Hike and Sunset ViewingGuided walks run at first light and late afternoon only — nobody walks the rim at midday.
- 05Santorini Fishing Private Cruise boat tour – BBQ, SnorkelingA whole boat, so it goes to whoever books it first — and one party takes the day.
The island’s lists, biggest first
Island highlights238 tours
Wine tasting182 tours
Catamaran cruises89 tours
Flying dress shoots76 tours
Sunset cruises37 tours
Volcano & hot springs33 tours
Oia at sunset31 tours
Akrotiri23 tours- Every review on the island →
By what kind of day it is
The newest Santorini reviews.
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